the vietnam era
DESCRIPTION
The Vietnam Era. Kent State —buried Constitution, burned ROTC building: National Guard opens fire; four dead, nine wounded Jackson State —again, unarmed students (this time, at black school) fired upon; two dead, dozen wounded. The Road to Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh —nationalistic, independent, - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
The Vietnam Era
Kent State—buried Constitution, burned ROTC building: National Guard opens fire; four dead, nine wounded
Jackson State—again, unarmed students (this time, at black school) fired upon; two dead, dozen wounded
The Road to Vietnam Ho Chi Minh—nationalistic, independent,
communist: wary of China, France, U.S.
Ngo Dinh Diem—Eisenhower’s choice
over free elections; Vietcong, Buddhists rise up
The domino theory—if one falls, all fall
Tonkin Gulf incident—skirmishes,
deception provide pretext for “all
necessary measures”: “blank check”
Escalation—full bore or get out
Air strikes—Operation Rolling
Thunder aimed at North: failure—why?
A Buddhist monk sacrifices himself to protest against the South Vietnamese Catholic-
dominated government of Ngo Dinh Diem.
North Vietnamese
leader Ho Chi Minh.
Social Consequences of the War Body counts—only way
to keep score, territory irrelevant—why? Technology and its limits
—overwhelming supplies, napalm, white phosphorus, cluster bombs, Agent Orange: “destroying in order to save”; more bombs than WWII
Hawks and doves McNamara loses faith–no
“light at the end of the tunnel” Inflation—massive war, Great
Society spending
Johnson and McNamara agonize over the War.
American “grunts” (avg.
age, 19) in Vietnam.
The Unraveling Stalemate—intelligence nightmare, Tet creates
“credibility gap” in U.S. public opinion
My Lai—body count gone wild: tip of iceberg?
“Clean for Gene”—hippies got
haircuts in supporting McCarthy for
N.H. defeat/victory: RFK jumps in, too
LBJ withdraws– “I shall not seek,
and I will not accept…”
Summary execution of a Viet Cong by South
Vietnamese officer during Tet Offensive.
The King/Kennedy assassinations—shocking events in turbulent times: much of the
strength of liberal tradition gunned down with them
Revolutionary clashes worldwide—Chicago one of many student uprisings
worldwide in 1968Aides point out the direction of the fatal gunshot that struck down Martin Luther
King; a busboy tries to help the fatally wounded RFK in a Los Angeles hotel.
Chicago Police clash with
protesters who chanted “The
whole world’s watching” during demonstrations at
the 1968 Democratic
convention.
Nixon’s “silent majority”—hard-working, non-protesting
The election of 1968—Vietnam, civil rights, Wallace
overwhelm Humphrey
End of Reading
Nixon’s War Henry Kissinger—Nixon’s foreign
policy man: end the war 1st priority
Invading Cambodia—escalating
again to put hurting on North, give
South time; disillusionment at home
Nixon Doctrine—U.S. can’t do it
all: others should share burden;
“détente” to deal with Soviets
SALT I—no new antiballistic systems
and limits on deployed missiles
Nixon announcing the invasion of
Cambodia on national television.
Henry Kissinger
The New Identity Politics Separate Identities vs. assimilation—African Americans,
Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans, feminists, gays
Puerto Ricans and Cubans—alienated island people
Cesar Chavez and the UFW—nonviolence, marches, consumer boycotts
Chicano activists—Latino militants: culture
dismissed, labor exploited, advancement denied
La Raza Unida—paramilitary “Brown Berets”
demanding concessions from government
Cesar Chavez, leader of the United Farm Workers, mustering support for a
boycott of table grapes.
Termination—push Native Americans
off tribal lands
American Indian Movement—like other groups, Native Americans
turned to social activism; Alcatraz
Wounded Knee—lack of unity and
support led to abandonment of takeover
Russell Means and Dennis Banks,
leaders of AIM, the American
Indian Movement; Banks talks to
reporters.
Stonewall incident—Homosexuals fight back; American
Psychiatric Association revision in ’74
The Feminine Mystique—“problem that has no name”: lack of
growth and fulfillment
NOW—“systemic
discrimination”
makes “sexism”
rank with racism
Women divided—ERA
and abortion
A NOW logo; and Gloria Steinem, founder of Ms.
magazine.
Betty Friedan, author of the The
Feminine Mystique.
The End of an Era Paris peace treaty—“Peace with honor”: provide aid to
North Vietnamese, send soldiers back (secret pledge) if needed
Vietnam and the cold war—realization: limits to what U.S. could do both at home and abroad